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16 January 2013

Posted on Jan 17, 2013

A Day to Honor Religious Freedom January 16, 2013

mormonnewsroom.org

More than two centuries ago, Thomas Jefferson drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. On 16 January 1786, the Virginia General Assembly passed the bill, laying the groundwork for the First Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights that establishes the protection of religious freedom. Twenty years ago President George H. W. Bush instituted Religious Freedom Day on 16 January. Since then, each year on 16 January, the president of the United States has issued an official proclamation in honor of religious freedom.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints feels deep appreciation for the freedoms that have flowed since the Virginia Statute and has joined with many others in fostering and encouraging the defense and preservation of religious freedom. Church leaders have addressed the many societal benefits that come from religious pluralism, vibrant religious communities and a general environment of morality and social trust.

Mormons Respond to Typhoon Pablo With Relief Supplies, Service January 16, 2013

mormonnewsroom.org

Since Typhoon Pablo slammed into the southern Philippines on 4 December 2012, killing more than 1,000 people and displacing hundreds of thousands more, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has responded with relief supplies and volunteer service.

Mormon FAIR-Cast 125: Deification in LDS and early Christian thought January 16, 2013

FAIR Blog

Do Mormons believe they will become gods? Is this belief supported in the Bible? Are there other Christian religions that have similar beliefs? In this episode of Religion Today that originally aired on March 27, 2011, Martin Tanner discusses the concept of deification, or theosis, and the way in which it has been discussed in the Bible, by early Christians, and by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Book Of Mormon Tickets: Benedum Center Tickets Available for all Performances at SuperbTicketsOnline.com January 16, 2013

Digital Journal

Benedum Center in Pittsburgh will be hosting 16 performances of the popular and hilarious musical from March 26 until April 7. SuperbTicketsOnline.com can provide tickets for all upcoming shows in Pittsburgh, PA, along with premium seating that is available for theatergoers who want the best seats in the house. Benedum Center was originally The Stanley Theatre, a major movie palace in Western Pennsylvania. It was renovated in 1987, was reopened as Benedum Center of the Performing Arts and now is home for the Pittsburgh Opera and other local entertainment ensembles. The interior of the structure was preserved as much as possible, including the main chandelier that weighs in at 4,700 pounds.

Book of Mormon tickets are selling steadily for the show’s Broadway run and for the touring versions that are taking place across the U.S. At the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in New York, the show will continue to appear through all of 2013 and into 2014. The musical is also showing in theaters from coast to coast, including Fisher Theatre in Detroit, the Boston Opera House, Paramount Theatre in Washington State, Bank of America Theatre in Chicago, and Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C.

A mostly intact first-edition Book of Mormon stolen from a Mesa bookstore has been returned to the store owner now that it’s no longer needed as evidence against a man who has pleaded guilty to theft in the case.

Helen Schlie smiled when she read her late husband’s signature on a back page after Mesa police detectives returned the book on Monday.

An Arizona bookstore owner said she was relieved when police returned the first-edition Book of Mormon that a friend of hers had stolen.

Helen Schlie, 89, owner of the Helen Spencer Schlie Gallery in Mesa, said the book, one of only about 200 surviving first-editions from 1830, had been in her family for 40 years when it was taken last year by Jay Michael Linford, 49, The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday.

Humanist ‘Bible’ takes on Book of Mormon, other sacred texts January 16, 2013

Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)

In the section on the Book of Mormon, the “best” includes, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (2 Nephi 15:20). The “worst” includes, “And it came to pass that those Lamanites which had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites; and their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites.” (3 Nephi 2:14-15).

The ‘Book of Mormon': A satire that doubles as a recruitment tool January 16, 2013

Crosscut Seattle (Washington)

Why, in Joseph Smith’s name, is the Church of Latter Day Saints trying so hard to cozy up to the South Park collaborators skewering their beliefs? I can think of a few reasons:

It might be satire, but it’s educational. The story of Joseph Smith finding the golden plates that would become the real Book of Mormon on a hill in upstate New York and leading his followers toward Salt Lake City is all there. So is Smith’s transference of the plates to Brigham Young when he fell too ill to complete his journey. And the fact that the general public is clamoring to see a show that teaches them something – anything – real about Mormonism is great news.

“One thing that’s really clear to me is that Americans are so curious about and so hungry to connect with Mormons and we’ve been so inaccessible,” Mormon author Joanna Brooks told the LA Times in September. “It took [the creators of] ‘South Park’ to push Mormons out into telling our stories.”

Today, he owns a home in Bountiful, Utah, and is hardly retired. Shumway remains devoted to the missionary call of Mormonism.

His life of public service – four years as San Joaquin County supervisor followed by 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives – ended in 1990, almost a generation ago. “I always enjoyed making law more than practicing it,” said Shumway, who received his law degree from University of California’s Hastings law school in San Francisco.

Since leaving Congress, he and Luana, his wife of 52 years, have traveled the globe, visiting every continent, including Antarctica. They have most frequently visited Japan (11 trips as a congressman) and are in training this week for their third church assignment to the Land of the Rising Sun.

Manti Te’o to ESPN: ‘Faith is believing in something that you most likely can’t see’ January 16, 2013

Washington Post

In an emotional speech to his fellow students the week after the deaths of his grandmother and apparent girlfriend, Te’o spoke of his faith. A practicing Mormon, Te’o passed on the customary, early-20’s Latter-day Saint mission to instead return to the football field where, his bishop told CNN, he thought he could do more good for the faith in the short-term.

Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax January 16, 2013

Deadspin

We also know that Te’o is a devout Mormon. When asked why he picked Notre Dame over Southern California, the school he had supported while growing up in Hawaii, he said he prayed on it. “Faith,” he told ESPN, “is believing in something that you most likely can’t see, but you believe to be true. You feel in your heart, and in your soul, that it’s true, but you still take that leap.”

After leaving high school, Bevell was a redshirt freshman quarterback at Northern Arizona, then went on a two-year Mormon mission before enrolling at Wisconsin – the same school where Russell excelled – and quarterbacked the Badgers to a Rose Bowl victory over UCLA.

That was just about the time the boomlet for a genre that came to be labeled as Mormon Cinema started, with films such as Richard Dutcher’s “God’s Army” and Kurt Hale’s “The Singles Ward” making a splash in local theaters.

The festival rode that wave of popularity, which crested around 2005 or 2006 — when the genre was damaged by a string of movies that even good Mormons would look back and consider pretty lousy. (There were exceptions, of course, such as Ryan Little’s “Saints & Soldiers” and Vuissa’s “The Errand of Angels.”)

Saturday, Feb. 2, begins with Historic Nauvoo’s re-enactment of the Mormon Exodus, starting at the Cultural Hall in Historic Nauvoo. A breakfast is offered by the missionaries at Historic Nauvoo at 8 a.m. with the walk starting at 9 a.m.

Sessions continue in the afternoon including Wayne May telling about Hopewell Indians in the Nauvoo area and Jim Moffit sharing memories of the Moffit family in Nauvoo; Bob Baxter relating stories of characters of Nauvoo and Mary Baxter Logan describing Nauvoo’s wine cellars; Rosemary Palmer relating stories of children who lived in 1840s Nauvoo and Linda Nelson sharing stories of the Kachle and Nicol families who called the Nauvoo Flats home for five generations.

As we head into a new year, the guardians of traditional religion are ramping up efforts to keep their flocks–or, in crass economic terms, to retain market share. Some Christians have turned to soul searching while others have turned to marketing. Last fall, the LDS church spent millions on billboards, bus banners, and Facebook ads touting “I’m a Mormon.” In Canada, the Catholic Church has launched a “Come Home” marketing campaign. The Southern Baptists Convention voted to rebrand themselves. A hipster mega-church in Seattle combines smart advertising with sales force training for members and a strategy the Catholics have emphasized for centuries: competitive breeding.

On the Town: Sheri Dew keynote speaker at LDS Women’s Conference, AAUW gathers at Oakmont Country Club January 16, 2013

Glendale News-Press (California)

It isn’t every day that more than 750 women gather in one place in Glendale. On Saturday (Jan. 12) that’s what took place at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) ward building on North Central. The Women’s Conference began with a continental breakfast of Porto’s pastries and fruit. Overseeing her cadre of volunteers was La Crescenta Stake (like a diocese) Relief Society President Gloria Hawley. Hawley was also hostess for guest of honor and keynote speaker author Sheri Dew.

Dew is also publisher, president and CEO of Deseret Book Co., headquartered in Salt Lake City. In 2003 she was appointed to the U.S. delegation of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women. A native of Ulysses, Kan., and graduate of Brigham Young University, Dew is known as the most prominent single LDS (Mormon) woman.

NOTE: This is posted for those who are interested in keeping abreast what is being said around the world about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members. MormonVoices cannot and does not guarantee the validity or truthfulness of any information reported. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of this information lies with the reader. As all information comes from other news sources and has not been independently verified, MormonVoices cannot guarantee or be responsible for the security of links in the clipping service. MormonVoices will attempt as much as possible to exclude news articles containing strongly offensive language or which lead to offensive images, but cannot guarantee that some will not slip through.

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